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ARRIVING AT MASAI MARA PICTURE LINK
We were picked up from Angela's house at 8:00am and driven to Nairobi's Wilson Airport. This is a
small airport used by local charter companies for private aviation. We had tickets on Blue Sky Aviation
but since they didn't have a full flight, we were switched to Queensway Air Services. It was cloudy and rainy out of Nairobi, so
the flight to the Masai Mara National
Reserve was slightly bumpy making me a bit nauseated -- yuck. That's small planes for you!
We saw many herds of animals from the plane as we flew over the Masai Mara. Jeff and I were so excited --
acting like little kids saying "look at this one, look at that one!" We saw many elephants, buffalo, and
hippos from up above. After about an hour, we landed at an airstrip in the northwestern part of the reserve located near the Governor's Camp. This
luxury tented camp is located in the woods on a
bend of the Mara River on the site of an old hunting camp. There are 38 tents, and it's very nice as we
got to visit it on Game Drive #4.
On our flight was a Governor's Camp representative. She worked in Nairobi but was entertaining
a Belgium journalist as he was writing an article about their camp. We took off again and after less than five
minutes we landed on the airstrip near the Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp, our home for the next five days.
As we were landing, we saw an elephant on one side of the runway and two giraffes running along the other side of the runway.
How cool is that?
We were met by the Kichwa Tembo Camp Hostess, Sarah, who directed us to our awaiting four-wheel drive Land
Rover.
Our driver's name was Jackson, and we would be sharing our vehicle with another couple, Carol and Tom.
They were an older couple from southern California who were about our parent's age (in fact a lot of people
assumed they were our parents!). He was a doctor who travels the world checking hospital facilities to see
if they are in compliance. Boy, could he tell us some stories!
Jackson said that a cheetah and five cubs had been spotted near the airstrip, and
asked if we would be interested in seeing them. Of course we were! The pictures are awesome! We were
then driven to our camp, where we checked in, were given an overview tour of the camp, and then we
had a buffet lunch at the restaurant.
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Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
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